It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

September 27, 2021

Hello everybody!

I'll just start off by saying, this week was a weird one. We had a few lessons cancel and a lot of people weren't able to meet, but it still went by pretty quick since it's Monday again!

I did have a few highlights I want to share!

Dave!

Dave is our miracle friend that just TWO WEEKS AGO decided he was ready to get baptized. We have been meeting with him and this week we went over the gospel of Jesus Christ and specifically what it means to endure to the end. We covered so much, but he just soaks it in, and then asks really great questions. We had a good discussion all about faith, which I'll come back to in a minute, and he would say things like, "How could you not have faith" or "I am totally good with faith". There are just some people that you can tell have the firmest foundation and ready to receive this message! Well...Dave is getting baptized tomorrow night and I could not be more excited for him! He told us yesterday at church, "two more days" with a little giggle and then got so giddy when they announced it during Sacrament meeting. He is the best!

Faith

So back to this topic. I studied faith like crazy this week trying to understand it more. And did I learn! It seemed like the underlying theme of this week's studies were all about having faith in Heavenly Father and His plan for us and then also Jesus Christ and His Atonement. A lot of the talks that I ended up reading had people sharing their own personal experiences of when their faith has been challenged and then as a result, strengthened. The phrase, "At times we need to have the faith to turn our life and our will over to God." kept coming to my mind. It helped me reflect and see the times I haven't been humble or patient enough to have faith in my Heavenly Father and Savior and even more specifically what I am doing now. I learned that faith comes as we patiently, humbly, diligently, and continually come to God and align our will with His. Good stuff

Winds

We had an awesome lesson last night. The guy we met with has been feeling pretty lost and is just trying to figure out where God wants him to go. We decided we would read with him the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether. If you haven't read it recently, please do! It is full of so many good things! We talked about how God answers our prayers and gives us revelation in different ways. We ALSO talked a lot about winds. Two verses that I absolutely love are Ether 6:5,8

5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind

8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind

Sometimes, our trials feel like furious winds that are blowing and don't seem to stop. But what I love is that those winds are blowing us toward the promised land. That could be peace, direction, getting back on the path, or returning to live with Heavenly Father. The winds in our lives never cease, because God knows that we need trials to help us grow, and turn to Him for help. The winds help us build our faith in Him! (see what I did there ;) ) We told and promised our friend that the winds he has been facing have been blowing him to right here and right now. The Spirit was so strong and I could feel him thinking about what we were saying. Strong testimony of the power of trials in our lives.